The temples at which most Chinese
monks and lay Buddhists worshippedwere made of wood, built to last at most a few centuries.Some were in the mountains, built for monks who wished to remove
themselves from the clamor of everyday life.Lay Buddhists might make pilgrimages to these mountain temples,
but there were also Buddhist temples much closer at hand in every town
and city. There are no
extant urban temple complexes dating from Tang times, though there are
some in Japan that were based on Chinese models.Here, to capture something of the physical, visual, and material
impact of China's urban temples, we take you into a temple still in use
today, the Fayuan (Dharma Origin) temple in Beijing.

Fayuan
Temple Tour

Fayuan Temple is located in
Beijing. It was first completed in the late seventh century during the
Tang. Over the last thousand plus years, the temple was destroyed by
warfare, fire, and even an earthquake. Thus it has had to be rebuilt
many times, and most of its surviving buildings date to the
seventeenth-nineteenth centuries.

Below is an artist's rendering of a bird's eye view of the
temple complex.

The
main gate of the temple is at bottom right. The side buildings are of
secondary importance. They include halls to patron saints, halls to
remember loved ones and temple offices.

The next layer out is made up of buildings used by monks and nuns
rather than lay people. There are dormitories, study halls, and dining
halls for those who live in the temple.

We begin our tour here at the southernmost point. The main gate is
also called the mountain gate. Looking inside we see an incense burner
set before the first central building and a pair of lions guarding the
door, which are common to many kinds of buildings in China, not just
Buddhist temples.

Try to size up the effect the lions have.

Can you imagine the building without the lions?

MORE:
Lions are not native to China, yet they have become important
symbols in Chinese culture. Manjusri or Wenshu in Chinese, the
Bodhisattva of Wisdom is often depicted riding on a lion. The
custom of having a pair of lions guarding a door is common and
dates to the third century.

Mountain gate of Fayuan Temple

SOURCE:
Fayuansi (Beijing: Fayuansi liutongchu, 1981), p.
1.

Passing through the gate we glance
to our right and left and see the drum and bell towers respectively. As
the name implies, the drum tower houses a large drum and the bell tower,
a bell.

When do you think these
instruments are played? Why place them in their own architectural
structures?

Drum tower

SOURCE: Fayuansi (Beijing: Fayuansi liutongchu, 1981), p. 7.

Bell tower

SOURCE:
Fayuansi (Beijing: Fayuansi liutongchu, 1981), p. 7.

The central buildings are of
primary importance. They house the shrines to Buddhas, bodhisattvas,
and other deities as well as scriptures and holy relics.

Straight ahead we see the first
central building. The characters over the door tell us it is the hall of
the Divine Kings, the guardians of this temple.

These temple buildings are good
examples of traditional Chinese architecture. Even today there are
attempts to incorporate elements of traditional Chinese architecture
into new temple buildings.

In looking at these buildings
from Fayuan Temple can you guess why people today would want to continue
incorporating these elements into the architecture of new buildings?

Hall of the Divine Kings

SOURCE:
Fayuansi (Beijing: Fayuansi liutongchu, 1981), p. 7.

Below is the main hall for
worship. Letís go up the steps and inside.

What do you think might be the
function of the bronze object in the center of this picture, and the
stone slabs to either side?

ANSWER:
An incense container sits in the center, flanked by stone stele,
or slabs, with inscriptions.

Main
Hall

SOURCE:
Fayuansi (Beijing: Fayuansi liutongchu, 1981), p. 10.

To
the left is the main altar in the temple. We see a gilded Buddha statue
almost four meters tall in the center and two other figures. In front of
them are a ceremonial incense burner, candles, a vase of flowers, and
plates with offerings of fruit.

Can you identify the type of images flanking the Buddha on either
side?

ANSWER:
They are bodhisattvas.

Main altar

SOURCE:
Fayuansi (Beijing: Fayuansi liutongchu, 1981), p. 12.

Further
back in the temple compound we find the building that houses the Buddhist
scriptures.